Carter Daniel Rutgers University August 2005

NOTES ON TQM (TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT) AND EDUCATION

Try to envision the following company:

It turns out 1,000,000 items a year from its assembly line.

At the exit point, it inspects the products and concludes that 100,000 of them are defective. It labels these defective and discards them.

It then calls a press conference to announce proudly that it has rejected 10% of its production, thus demonstrating the companys high standards.

It did the same thing last year. It will do the same thing next year. And the next.

It advertises this process in its literature -- one of the highest reject rates around.

Its employees routinely boast about the high inspection standards and make cynical comments about the low quality of the output.

Within the company, the high reject rate is generally attributed to the poor quality of raw material. Nobody, however, actually tries to do anything to improve the raw material. Instead, everyone merely complains about it.

Even though it is commonly known that one machine turns out a disproportionate share of rejected material, the company continues using that machine because replacing it would be cumbersome.

The company is controlled by Directors who focus only on input criteria how many hours are worked, for example and who measure the companys effectiveness only by the cost-per-unit-of-production, without considering rejects. Rejects, after all, are a source of pride.

There is no incentive for changing anything. Workers are paid regardless of the output.

Reforms, when they are undertaken, consist mainly of filling out forms documenting and classifying the different kinds of failure thus reducing the time that the company could devote to its processes and products.

Standards for evaluating the finished product change over the years. Something that is approved today might not have been approved ten years ago. In actual fact, nobody really has any clear idea about what makes the product acceptable or not acceptable.

Virtually everyone agrees that the quality of the companys output has declined markedly during the past 30 years.

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Anyone listening to this description will surely recognize several problems.

For one thing, the companys boasts are misplaced. Whereas it seems to think its bragging about success, its really bragging about failure. No less than 10% of its work is defective.

4 For another, its exclusive focus on finished products is simply foolish. What it obviously should be doing instead is focusing on the process to see why so many defective products keep coming off its assembly line. Something is clearly wrong with the machines, and thus it is the machines, not the output, that should be labeled defective and discarded.

Finally, the sheer inefficiency of such an operation the continuing failure to address the problems, the use of the wrong measures to evaluate the operation, the absence of incentives to undertake change is staggering. With any serious competition, this appalling company will almost surely not be able to remain in business long.

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The company is, of course, our education system. In an age when practically everything else has made startling improvements, education goes on pretty much as it did 50 and 100 years ago.

We wait until the students work is complete and then inspect it.

We proudly fail a substantial number of students and use that fact as evidence of high quality. (The press conference to announce the high failure rate is a fact. One New Jersey college president proudly used to call such a press conference at the end of each semester to boast about his institutions tough standards.)

Even if we know that failures repeatedly come from one department or one teacher, we do nothing about that situation. In fact we sometimes use the high failure rate as a reason for praising that department or teacher really high standards, really demanding!

Boards of Education and Boards of Trustees measure success by how much money they save in running the schools. Nobody bothers to check the output.

Most of the teachers long ago gave up on anything except trying to do their own work adequately and within the guidelines. Some of them, in fact, have never tried to do anything more than that. And some, of course, dont even do that much. There is, after all, almost no incentive, since rewards have no relation to effectiveness.

Attempts at improvements and reforms have produced only temporary increases in resources (like Were going to spend an extra $50,000 on reading improvement this year), superficial changes in facilities (like We are replacing all temporary classrooms), or arbitrary goals (like a 20% improvement in math scores by the year 2000).

Attempts to discuss what really needs to be done, instead of these ineffective improvements and reforms, meet with a volley of negativism, including (but not limited to) the following:

It would cost too much. The Board would never approve that. How do you plan to get this past the accrediting agency? Parents wouldnt stand for it. It would hurt the students SAT scores. It would lower our schools ranking in the state. Our students chances of getting into top colleges would be reduced. If we tried anything different, the Administration would assume we werent doing our prescribed jobs and so would add on extra work. All its going to mean is more paperwork. How will this affect tenure? How will this affect salary? This would require more work. The students we get arent good enough to do this. The students arent mature enough to handle this kind of thing. Our teachers arent trained to do this. (from the teachers) Do you really think you can change Miss Mudslide? Shes been teaching this way for 43 years and has won Teacher of the Year four times. (from the students) Oh god, not another experiment at our expense! (from everybody) Well, I see what you mean, but it would never happen here.

7 In short, cynicism, complacency, contempt, self-interest, resignation, and despair are so deeply engraved into every facet of every level of education that the system does not to be polite about it seem to be a promising object for real reformers to tackle.

I would like to say all the following things anyway.

Presented here are observations based on (1) W. Edwards Demings famous 14 points for quality improvement in industry, (2) a lesser-known book, Quality Education, by Gray Rinehart (1992), and (3) a bunch of other books.

In order to understand what Deming is saying, one has to understand four concepts: (1) The system means interdependent components working together toward a specific goal. To manage a system one has to know the components, the inter-relationships, and the goal. The object is to optimize the system for the benefit of everybody involved. The techniques are to encourage communication and cooperation among the components, and to judge the performance of each component by its contribution to the system. No operating in a vacuum, no building of little empires. All that matters is optimization of the system for the benefit of everybody involved.

(2) Variation means simply the normal range of things. Things do vary,

8 and its entirely normal that they do. A manager has to determine whats within and whats without this normal range, and then has to distinguish between the variations that are caused by a common cause and those that are caused by special causes.

(3) Knowledge has to be distinguished from information. Until theres some kind of theory linking the information, it doesnt become knowledge. Knowledge also is a predictor: when information has been incorporated into a theory, then the theory can be used to explore the future.

(4) Psychology means relying on internal rather than external motivation. Higher pay, merit awards, bonuses, and such things are the tools of prostitution; internal motivators are the only valid kinds of psychology.

Okay, here goes with Demings 14 points, Rineharts re-statement of each for education purposes, and some observations.

Point #1

Demings Point #1: Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive, stay in business,

9 and provide jobs. Note that this doesnt mean improving the product; it means improving the process. Huge difference.

Rineharts Education Version of Point #1: Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of education, with the aim to prepare people for the future by providing joyful learning experiences that develop their potentials fully. Somewhere in here is the suggestion that every single day each person must make note of something that can be done better the next day, in the direction mentioned. Dont let the future/joyful/potentials rhetoric turn on your cynicism lights: What he means is the opposite of destroying individuals by constantly having them fill in busywork formulas which consume their lives, their time, their creativity.

The two biggest considerations here are that this requirement is systemwide, not individual, starting from the very top and going to the very bottom, and that the view must be long-term, not short.

Point #2
Demings Point #2: Adopt the new philosophy. In short, this isnt a system that begins as a dictum from the superintendents office. Every single person at every single level must become committed to the concept.

10 Rineharts Education Version of Point #2: Adopt the new philosophy. Thinking about, talking about, emphasizing, and focusing on quality arent what this means at all. Its not a tool, a fad, or a technique its a concept. Quality is not a measure of success; it is the measure of success.

Adoption of the philosophy means a change in the whole object/goal/intent of what we do. Nothing like such change has ever occurred in my life, nor, I suspect, in most peoples. This is no superficial slogan, no wearing of a pin on our lapel. Put away your nets and follow me and I shall make you fishers of men. Give up everything you have thought before, and commit yourself entirely to the new concept.

Point #3

Demings Point #3: Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Inspection deals with products; quality deals with processes. If somethings wrong with the product then its the process that needs to be changed. This principle applies equally to incoming materials and outgoing goods: inspection is too late, ineffective, and costly.

Rineharts Education Version of Point #3: Cease dependence on comparative and competitive testing. Tests usually test information, not

11 knowledge; they dont reveal very much; they cause ill-will. Evaluation will certainly have to continue, but it should be future-based.

Performance, depth, assimilation, understanding, initiative, interest, compassion, and a few other such things are what lead to productive lives. If those could be evaluated, instead of the things we now test, we would have made a move toward adoption of the total quality system.

Point #4

Demings Point #4: End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone. Using lowest-price things usually ends up costing more in the long run. Choice of business partners should be more by quality than by price.

Rineharts Education Version of Point #4: Work with suppliers to continually improve the quality of incoming people, equipment, and supplies. Work with colleges to get the kind of teachers the school wants; work with parents and the community to get the kind of students the school wants; work with teachers to devise the kind of employment arrangement most conducive to good performance; work with publishers,

12 manufacturers, and contractors to get the best books, equipment, and facilities. Constantly looking for improvement thats the key idea in all these points.

How many times a day, I wonder, do we say I wish that XXX were different? If we made note of all these ideas and did something instead of just wishing, it would, finally, make a difference.

Point #5

Demings Point #5: Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs. The public perception that quality costs more is wrong; it is never cheaper to do something badly or to have to do it over a second time.

Rineharts Education Version of Point #5: Improve constantly and forever the system of instruction and service. Teachers and administrators must constantly improve their own work and must constantly look around them to see what new things need doing.

13 We all have pretty clear ideas about what does and doesnt work; all we have to do is peel off the bad and focus on the good day after day, year after year. Quality is never accomplished; it is a process. If we do something that doesnt work, we must never do it the same way a second time.

Point #6
Demings Point #6: Institute training on the job. If new workers learn

how to work only from old workers, no progress will ever occur. The mistakes of the past will be perpetuated.

Rineharts Education Version of Point #6: Institute training on the job. Teacher-training shouldnt be thought of as something that occurs before a teacher starts; its a lifetime process.

Just think how much expertise is lost because teachers never see one another teach, administrators never see one another administrate, and so on. In our present modes of operation we have virtually no system for improving our processes.

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Point #7
Demings Point #7: Institute leadership. Managing and leading arent the same things. That philosophy mentioned back in point #2 requires leadership at every level.

Rineharts Education Version of Point #7: Institute leadership. If ever any group has been guilty of managing instead of leading, surely its school people.

Just imagine what a change would occur if school officials actually pursued a vision instead of satisfied a requirement. More, below, in the next point.

Point #8

Demings Point #8: Drive out fear, so that everyone may work efficiently for the organization. Fear of job loss, of obsolescence, of appearing inept, of being blamed for things beyond ones control, of being ostracized these are all over the place in business, and they exercise total control over a huge proportion of the way workers behave.

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Rineharts Education Version of Point #8: Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively in school. Everybody in school is scared; at least half of what we do is designed to cover our asses instead of to accomplish any worthwhile objectives. Students are at least as scared as teachers. Fear, which is not a productive emotion, may be the single largest motivator in the traditional school. We are afraid of the state, of the district, of the school down the street, of the Board of Education, of the parents, of the teachers and their unions, of the general public, of the students, of the alumni, and probably of several other groups too. Fear can, if one adopts a total change, be entirely replaced.

Point #9
Demings Point #9: Break down barriers between departments. Since quality is a totally-encompassing system-wide concept, the need for communication, cooperation, and understanding among departments should be obvious.

Rineharts Education Version of Point #9: Break down barriers between departments. Between administrators and teachers, between

16 athletics and academics, between counselors and teachers, between grade levels barriers are everywhere in schools.

If everybody is really involved in the total commitment to total quality, then barriers wont exist. If barriers exist, then everybody wont be involved . . . Schools are probably worse about barriers than businesses are. In a business, because theres a profit involved people realize that if one end of the boat sinks, the other end is going to sink too. Since schools dont make a profit anyway, nobody has to think about things like that.

Point #10

Demings Point #10: Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce asking for things they cannot deliver. Exhortations are insulting; they imply that workers arent doing their jobs.

17 Rineharts Education Version of Point #10: Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for students and teachers. They dont do any good, and theyre irritating.

They also detract from what is really meant by the concept of quality. If people think of quality as something that can be encapsulated in a slogan, then were back to another one of those excellence binges that produce no results.

Point #11

Demings Point #11: Eliminate numerical goals (quotas) for both workers and managers. The entire emphasis on productivity has to be replaced by an emphasis on quality. Aiming for numbers creates a lot of waste and probably ends up costing more. Anyway, its a dumb idea: if the workers could have produced more without any changes in the process, then why didnt they already do it?

Rineharts Education Version of Point #11: Eliminate numerical quotas for teachers, students, and administrators. Goals like the ones published every few years by governmental organizations are utterly arbitrary and unrelated to the system and its purpose.

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The whole idea that a school should improve its graduation rate, the foreign language proficiency, or the geographical knowledge of its students to meet somebodys declared standard is so stupid its a wonder anybody has ever paid any attention. Yet every school does pay rigid attention to such things.

Point #12

Demings Point #12: Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship. Providing proper tools, materials, environment, and information to do a job correctly will have the result of creating pride in the job which is another way of saying quality.

Rineharts Education Version of Point #12: Remove barriers that rob students and teachers of pride of workmanship. Busywork assignments, humiliating grades and class rankings, and all such things that stifle creativity and teamwork can be eliminated; in fact we already know how to do so.

19 There isnt any reason why students shouldnt love school or to put it the other way, there isnt any reason why schools shouldnt be lovable. Companies can be; why cant schools? Everybody likes to do good work, so why not in school too? Fear of punishment shrouds a school and its students; pride in work should and could replace fear.

Point #13

Demings Point #13: Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement. Only employees who are continuously growing can handle the responsibilities that quality places on them.

Rineharts Education Version of Point #13: Institute a vigorous program of continued education and self-improvement for everyone. This point does not in any way resemble the present practice of paying higher salaries for accumulating graduate credits or degrees. Instead it refers to creating an atmosphere in which teachers and administrators will forever be searching both inwardly and outwardly for new knowledge and ways of learning finding and attending seminars, inventing their own seminars, encouraging others to explore ideas with them, and so on. If they dont do (and arent permitted and encouraged to do) these things, the constant quest for quality cannot possibly succeed.

20 Just imagine the sense of exhilaration, the excitement, the constant probing into new areas that would occur if a group of educated educators were given the incentives and the freedom to undertake a continuous search for new ideas.

Point #14

Demings Point #14: Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. Managers must not simply say things about quality; they must do things. Every worker must see the evidences in every other worker. If even one person doesnt understand and work toward the transformation, it will not succeed.

Rineharts Education Version of point #14: Take action to accomplish the transformation and include everyone in the school in the effort. Leadership from the top, hard work by everyone, and a firm determination to see it work these are the requirements.

Just getting rid of the negativism would be a large part of accomplishing this point. If, instead of complaining about one or another part of our jobs, we all spent our time devising improvements to the system, with total confidence in and

21 cooperation with everyone else, and with no cynical observations just think how much could get done!

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The following immortal bit of verse came to my attention while browsing through Rutgers Universitys Dana Library collection of books on Quality Management.

If you do what youve done youll get what youve got.